Read v. t. [imp. & p. p. Read p. pr. & vb. n. Reading.]
  1. To advise; to counsel. [Obs.] See Rede.
     Therefore, I read thee, get thee to God's word, and thereby try all doctrine.   --Tyndale.
  2. To interpret; to explain; as, to read a riddle.
  3. To tell; to declare; to recite. [Obs.]
     But read how art thou named, and of what kin.   --Spenser.
  4. To go over, as characters or words, and utter aloud, or recite to one's self inaudibly; to take in the sense of, as of language, by interpreting the characters with which it is expressed; to peruse; as, to read a discourse; to read the letters of an alphabet; to read figures; to read the notes of music, or to read music; to read a book.
     Redeth [read ye] the great poet of Itaille.   --Chaucer.
     Well could he rede a lesson or a story.   --Chaucer.
  5. Hence, to know fully; to comprehend.
     Who is't can read a woman?   --Shak.
  6. To discover or understand by characters, marks, features, etc.; to learn by observation.
  An armed corse did lie,
  In whose dead face he read great magnanimity.   --Spenser.
  Those about her
  From her shall read the perfect ways of honor.   --Shak.
  7. To make a special study of, as by perusing textbooks; as, to read theology or law.
  To read one's self in, to read aloud the Thirty-nine Articles and the Declaration of Assent, -- required of a clergyman of the Church of England when he first officiates in a new benefice.